21 month old sleep - confused.

[Madallie]

Just hoping some of you helpful mummies can give me some advice on what to do with my very spirited toddler's sleep routine. She goes through LOTS of phases with sleep and always has done since birth but I'm stuck with what routine to go with for her. She's never given concrete sleepy signs at set times. I do try my best to follow her lead.

Anyway about a month ago all seemed fine, she was sleeping 7.15-7.00 then napping for about an hour and a half 12-1.30 ish, then she started not dropping of til about 7.45 which was stilly all fine. Then a few weeks ago she started getting her molars through then got a cold and her sleep went haywire.

Well we just started getting back on track two nights ago when she slept 7pm-6.30am the napped 11.45- 1.00. Last night she slept 7.30pm-7.15am but then completely refused to nap. I put her to bed at 6.30 tonight but she didn't drop off til 7pm.

I'm just not sure what routine she needs now. Is it possible that if she has 12 hours at night she doesn't need a nap? At this age? Would the nap to no nap transition just happen like that overnight?

Maybe others that have similar aged babies could tell me about your routines.

Thanks in advace for any advice.

Hi Madallie - my DD is a bit younger than yours (19 mo) so I won't give you my 'routine' (it's all over the place anyway), but from experience from DS I'd say this was the whining signs of the long-ish process of dropping the nap. Your overnight sleep is awesome so it may be that occasionally she doesn't need the nap, but I'd still put her down and try regardless. Unless (a) bedtime starts to get stupidly late, or (b) you start get crazy early wake ups.

I also wonder whether you might push the nap out a bit. 12 could be a bit early if she's doing good nights and waking 6.30/7? During our long 2-1 transition, we got lots of complete nap refusals when I put DD down too early.